Pandoran Nights
by transcendantviewer
Summary: Bereft and lost, Krieg scours the wastelands of Pandora for his friends, his love, Maya, and an explanation as to what happened to separate him from them in the first place. Continues after Monstrous Occurrences. Rated Mature for blood and gore, graphic themes, mutilation, and sexual situations.
1. Delirium

_**Author's Note:**___

_** Hello again, my faithful readers. It's been a while since I've written something of note to all you Borderlands fans out there. That's changing today with this first chapter of my newest story, "Pandoran Nights". Those of you returning to my work after reading the bonus chapter at the end of "Monstrous Occurrences" know that this story is rather special. I hope you all enjoy it and that I can write it like it's playing out in my head. **_

__**Pandoran Nights: Chapter 1.**

"Well, I guess we better dig in then!" Brick said, rubbing his massive hands together and looking down at the plate before him, completely full with a Skag steak that was only lightly charred and seasoned to perfection. His mouth began to salivate as he stared down the marvelous hunk of delicious meat that lay steaming just mere inches from his mouth.

"Just don't forget your table manners, Brick. You know how you..." Mordecai began, stopping as soon as Brick cracked a dangerous smile and gripped the steak in both hands, taking a bite out of it like it were a colossal meat cookie, chewing much like a cow, a contented look in his eyes as he did so. "...Uh... Never mind then..." Mordecai said, his eye twitching visibly as his goggles were pushed up on his forehead. The others all laughed as they prepared their plates with high stacks of foods of all kinds.

Looking slightly shy in a way that Maya saw as one of the cutest things she'd ever seen, Krieg slumped in his chair slightly, glancing over to her before slowly lifting his mask and revealing his unnervingly white and somewhat spiked teeth, beginning to nervously gnaw at a hunk of thresher meat. Maya's soft, tattooed hand tightened its grip of his bandaged one to calm him as she smiled gently. "It's okay, Big Guy, they're our friends, you can trust them." She whispered to him, her thumb stroking back and forth on the top of his hand. He looked back to her after swallowing and nodded slowly, a soft smile on his insane lips that were now momentarily hidden behind his mask again. Angel and Zero were the only two to notice the tender moment from their perch above the others, but both smiled and looked to one another. Zero projected a "˂3" as he looked over to Angel and she snuggled up to him in happy silence.

However, their romantic silence was rapidly ruined as Krieg had noticed the two of them watching him as he ate and interacted with his siren, shouting angrily and immediately reaching down and, strangely enough, removing his boot and throwing it at the pair. "My banana figs will remain my own, Darkman!" he shouted, whipping his boot. The furred boot impacted with Zero's faceplate, causing him to recoil violently mere moments before he and Angel were to share a soft hug and she was about to kiss his faceplate. He turned and looked down at Krieg, projecting a question mark and holding his arms out in a questioning manner, Krieg simply ignoring the perturbed assassin as the others again burst out into unison laughter, even Angel giggling softly with a hand over her mouth. Zero sighed, defeated and simply projected an ellipsis from his visor, a large grey streak across it from where the rubber had bounced off.

Krieg shot up from his long awaited slumber covered in a thick, clinging sweat and his chest heaving rapidly as his heart pounded in his chest.

(Goddamn it, another memory... I'm sorry, pal, it doesn't seem like we're getting much sleep tonight. Let's head on then.) Krieg's inner voice commented in its usual echoing whisper inside the insane man's cranium. Krieg nodded, shedding a single tear from the sweet memory as he got up from the rock he'd slept on and readied his Buzz Axe. He looked down at the weapon, the blade being his Class Mod due to an afternoon of boredom and a lack of beasts to kill.

"The squinty eyed menace stands beside me and I can only swallow the impeccable gorillas and sodden the sands..." Krieg said in a soft tone, using one finger to twirl the blade of his oldest weapon.

(Yeah, I know, you want to do more than just wander and murder for once, but that's what we've got to do. We have to kill everything and anything that takes a shot at us to leave a trail for our friends. They know what our unique breed of carnage looks like and they'll pick up on this soon enough.) His inner voice replied. (So let's keep moving. Hey, maybe we'll find something nice for Maya while we're out here, eh? Come on, let's look around.) Krieg nodded, his demeanor pepping up at that last part and he raced off towards several bushes, picking a single bladeflower for Maya and tucking it into his storage deck to give to her on the day she'd find him.

"For my Meat Maiden..." he said in a tone so soft it sounded like his inner voice had spoken through his mouth. His grip on his axe tightened and loosened rhythmically as his thoughts trailed back and forth between memories and the present. He then began walking on, scanning the horizon for anything familiar. Finding nothing that he remembered, be simply continued wandering, his eye scanning about carefully for activity. The puffing noises beneath his boots stopped and the soil beneath his feet became sturdier, moister and noticeably harder.

(Wait... Feel that? The dirt's less sandy here... You know what that means...) Krieg's inner voice said softly as to not distract his psychotic partner in mass murder. Just then, the sand rumbled as trails of dirt were kicked up in writhing patterns all around him. (Threshers.) His inner voice commented, Krieg's grip on his Buzz Axe tightening instinctively, a familiar smile slithered across Krieg's deranged lips.

A Badass Pyre Thresher lurched from the ground, combusting the vicinity around Krieg, catching him on fire as it screeched and lifted its front pair of tendrils. Its screeching of dominance was cut short by the creature looking down to see a maniacally laughing Krieg, his Buzz Axe above his head and the flames licking his skin only slightly, creating a sight that significantly surprised the creature as normally, most creatures would be dead after such an onslaught. It gurgled in fury, flailing at Krieg repeatedly, but failing to hit as he hopped and hollered, firing his Corrosive Infinity Pistol he kept around for only such occasions, the bloody craze in his eyes growing gradually with each passing moment. Pretty soon, he stopped, pointing a single thick finger at the colossal beast before him and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"None shall stand aboard my blood trolley without a ticket!" He said, immediately being slammed in the stomach by a large tendril. He was pushed back several feet, his grip on the vine-like muscly structure like iron as he looked slowly back up with murderous intent in his eye and blood dripping from the side of his ear. "How kind of you... to... pay the TOLL!" he shouted as he transformed into his bestial state and immediately tore the tendril loose from the Thresher's form with the sheer power of his hold alone. "NOW ALL STAND IN A GENERATION'S HAMMOCK WHILE I BREACH YOUR HARPSICHORD!" he now bellowed, his monstrous voice echoing through the landscape as he cleaved through several tendrils, causing the thresher to groan loudly and submerge. Krieg got in one last swipe across the creature's eyes as it burrowed back into its domain. It quickly resurfaced, knocking Krieg back a few feet. Other tendrils surfaced around the rear of the beast, flicking fire at Krieg with each writhing motion made. He took it all, burying his blade into one with a satisfying, fleshy thud, blood spurting rhythmically from the now severed tendril. The removed appendage wilted and boiled, the force of the swing combined with substances on Krieg's bloody and sullen axe blade rapidly resulting in an explosive reaction, destroying the next tendril and then the next and the next until none remained and the final explosion killed the thresher outright. Krieg stood in place for several moments, peering around himself for other beings to slaughter while his infuriation lasted, seeing none; he merely inspected himself, even if devoid of some of his higher functioning. His shrunken, wilted hand twitched when he willed it to move.

(We really are a mess, huh, pal?) Krieg's inner voice asked, the monster of a man slowly nodding in agreement. (Well, at least we can control ourselves. You know, you made Maya proud when you did that. Her and me, pal. It really has been a pleasure, all self-beatings aside.) it continued.

"SHUT UP!" Krieg shouted, using his fist to hit himself, doing no considerable amount of harm to himself. It was now more of a strange running form of endearment that the psycho had with his sanity more than it was a deranged attempt to get the buzzing words in his head to fall silent.

(Heh, come on, pal, let's set up a shelter for the night. That's the third one of them we've taken down in two days, someone'll take notice soon.) it stated as Krieg shifted back to his normal form. He nodded, searching about for some random assorted objects to put over his head for the night and settling upon several large rocks, a few pipes, and a piece of sheet metal he'd found building a canopy for the night. He slowly drifted off to sleep, attempting to refurbish more of his energy since the night before.

Maya looked up at the distraught assassin and his shy and level-headed, if a bit innocent, love before laughing at the large white and grey streak going up his helmet from Krieg's boot. Krieg looked to her, smiling softly beneath his mask. (It's a nice sound isn't it, pal? Hearing her laugh?) Krieg's inner voice asked.

_Her colloquium fills my vengeful piranhas with yellow antennae and my fruit bat with polka dots! _ Krieg replied inside his head to the voice within. Maya was still laughing, covering her face with both hands and leaning down against the table, periodically taking in breath and holding for a moment before falling into a new fit of laughter.

"I just... I'm sorry... Just... Look at his face!" she said, pointing to Zero in between bouts of uncontrolled laughter. Zero looked at her, projecting a question mark, seeing the streak against his visor at that moment and pointing at Krieg, obviously annoyed.

"You will pay for that!/ Making a fool out of me/ Sealed your fate, Psycho!" he said, hopping agilely off the building and rising to stand beside Krieg. "I challenge you." He continued, drawing his blade.

"Zero!" Angel said, surprised by his outburst.

"Oh, let them have their duel, Ange, boys will be boys and they've had this silly little feud going long enough. Let them settle it like Vault Hunters so we can get back to eating." Lilith replied. Angel slowly nodded, watching worriedly. Krieg drew his Buzz Axe and the two walked towards an open space in the town where they could do combat without endangering the citizens or their Vault Hunter allies.

As the commander of the Crimson Raiders, Roland walked over to the two as they stared each other down, Krieg's visible eye full of anger and Zero's stance precise and calm.

"Okay. 3..." Roland began, looking to Zero. "...2..." he continued, now turning towards Krieg, neither of the two acting like he was even there. The air was full of intensity and Roland found it unnerving, even to his experienced and cool demeanor. "...1..." he continued, looking back at the table, still backing away from the two. "...GO!" he shouted, standing in the center of town, under the generator that was responsible for Sanctuary's flight.

With a start, Krieg and Zero rushed one another, Zero holding his blade at his side and Krieg holding his above his head. The two stood as two sides of the same coin that was combat. The absolute voice of precision and deftness: Zero, versus the standing champion of all that was insanity, unpredictability, and a lust for carnage and destruction: Krieg. Their blades crossed for one moment, Zero's energy Katana leaving only a miniscule nick in the marred and tattered blade on Krieg's demented weapon, much to the surprise of all the others. The sheer brute force of Krieg's lash pushed Zero back several feet, allowing him to activate his stealth and bide his time, Krieg just smart enough to realize that Zero was using his decoy and not rushing up after it. Precious seconds ticked away as Zero waited patiently, readying his deadly strike. He lunged toward Krieg, swinging with all his might at the psychopath. However, at the last crucial instant, Krieg dived out of the way of the lethal swing, escaping with his life, if severely wounded.

"Dahahahahaha! Your soilent children and penny arcades... can... NOT... STOP ME!" Krieg shouted, stumbling and rapidly beginning his transformation into the form Zero was hoping to avoid at all costs. Krieg's arm expanded and his other cracked and twisted, shortening rapidly. He immediately looked at the assassin and hurled one of his dynamite bound Buzz Axes, the blade colliding with the ground mere inches from Zero' foot as he avoided it at the last moment. The explosion was enough to shatter Zero's shield, a direct hit from one of those would end him. He looked up to see Krieg charging full bore at him, his massive arm and substantial Buzz Axe above his head. Zero looked at the sight, slightly surprised, that is until his Decepti0n reactivated and he sidestepped Krieg's lunging strike. Krieg spun around, swinging once more before tossing his axes at the ground all around him, a stray explosion revealing Zero as he grunted in pain from the shock and shuffled loudly to regain balance, but he again disappeared into silence, moving from the spot quickly. Krieg shouted in frustration, turning back and forth, this time not attempting to avoid Zero's blade. Zero's swing was precise and devastating, but not enough to fell the hulking man. Krieg spun around and slammed his axe-bearing arm down upon Zero's shoulder, the sheer force of the blow pushing Zero to his knees with a heavy thud. Krieg lifted his immense, mutated arm above his head for the finishing blow when Zero dropped the hilt of his now destructed blade, lifting a three fingered hand to his opponent.

"I... I yield." He said softly, breathing heavily. Krieg acknowledged Zero's surrender, shifting back a moment later. The spectacle stunned everyone, no one more so than Maya.

(Good job, pal! You didn't just defeat him, you stopped when we'd won! Look at Maya! She's so happy!) Krieg's sanity said happily inside the deranged man's head calling Krieg's attention to Maya who was standing at the side of her chair, smiling warmly with soft tears running down her cheeks. Angel rushed to Zero's side and helped him up.

"You have bested me/ And did so honorably/ You are my equal." Zero said, walking with Angel up to Krieg and held out a hand. "Friend." He said smoothly as he awaited a handshake as a sign of sportsmanship.

Krieg looked at his hand for a moment before grabbing Zero's outstretched hand and shook it violently. Angel laughed lightly and Maya ran up to Krieg, hugging him softly around the waist, getting his attention. When he looked down at her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his mask up above his head with the back of his head now turned towards the onlookers as she kissed him in a soft and passionate kiss.

(This... This is heaven, eh, pal?) Krieg's inner voice said as the two stared into Maya's silvery eyes. Krieg nodded and Maya laughed softly, having heard what his inner voice said.

_**End Pandoran Nights Chapter 1.**_

_** I hope you all enjoyed this continuation and don't worry, it'll all make sense as the story progresses. As always, read, review, PM me if you have more expansive feedback and see you all again in next chapter.**_


	2. Shellshock

**Pandoran Nights. Chapter 2: Shellshock. Begin.**

Krieg shot up from his haphazard slumber, his chest heaving violently as it had since the first night he could remember. He lifted his mask, rubbing his scarred face with his bandaged right hand. He felt a soft burning in his eyes that he'd not felt since his afternoon spent at the train station as he prepared to leave his friends and try to atone after nearly harming Maya during their underwater play several weeks earlier.

(It's alright, pal, we'll make that dream real again soon, don't worry.) Krieg's inner voice said softly in his head. Krieg nodded solemnly as he replaced his mask over his face, now inspecting the darkened world around him. Due to what could have been years traversing the wastes of Pandora, Krieg naturally became accustomed to the darkness quickly, his vision clear against the night that clutched him. The make-shift shelter he'd forged out of scrap had done well to protect him from the elements that night, but his thrashing in his sleep and his sudden start just moments ago had ruined the pieces of scrap piping that he'd use to support the canopy above his feet. Bent piping and dented scrap metal laid at his side as he shuffled to his feet slowly, inspecting the land around him. The dead thresher several meters away was being picked at by passing skags that were paying him no mind. He looked over at them and simply sighed, _consciously_ deciding to leave them be. (It's a sad day on Pandora when the noble psycho tires of killing.) Krieg's inner voice commented. Krieg simply continued on, tearing a tendril off the dead beast and eating it as he walked on, taking small, disinterested bites of the tough flesh of the worm-like creature.

"Uoooaagh! The powerhouse in the bloody stream does not bring forth the nickel fists!" Krieg shouted, smacking himself on the forehead with his open palm in frustration.

(Yeah, I'm sorry, big guy; I don't know what happened either.) Krieg's sanity replied in a solemn tone. Krieg grumbled audibly and continued on through the dusty wastes.

Miles stretched on in all directions; the infamous Pandoran desert engulfed the insane man. Just then, a ping sounded from his Echo Communicator. He feverishly answered the call.

"Vanilla obfuscation!" He shouted into the communicator immediately to signal that he'd answered.

"Um, hello, Krieg?" a soft, nervous voice said over the Echo.

(That's Angel! WE'RE GOING HOME!) Krieg's inner voice shouted with happiness.

"How may my pastel of voracious flower pedals requiem?!" Krieg bellowed with glee.

"I... I just wanted to tell you that Maya loves you, even now... She... She said that she'll... That she will see you again soon..." Her voice was shaking, not with fear or fury but sorrow and despair. "I... I'm sorry!" she said, immediately ending the call.

(Call her back! NOW!) Krieg's inner voice shouted at him. Krieg grabbed his Echo and dialed her number. She answered, now openly sobbing.

"I'm sorry... I just... Why did you do it, Krieg? Why? ...I... WE thought you were getting better! ...But... You..." she spoke in between heart wrenching sobs. Unable to continue speaking with Krieg, Angel again hung up the call, hacking his echo to prevent him calling back.

(What the hell happened? What did we do!?) Krieg's inner voice asked himself, now confused. Krieg clutched his head, for once trying to remember but getting nothing. (What did we do?!)

"NYAAAAAHGH! I DON'T KNOW!" Krieg screamed back, his hands clenching his head tightly as his muscles tensed on reflex. A shooting pain blitzed through his head at that moment, causing him to bellow with agony as memories flooded his mind. His knees buckled beneath him and he dropped onto the dust and sand below, clutching his head. His nails dug into his scalp, tearing away skin and creating deep, bleeding wounds as he clawed at the source of his agonizing pain.

(Argh! Krieg, no, I know it hurts, but we need... Uagh... To remember!) Krieg's insanity shouted at him. He stopped digging at his head and laid on his back, digging his hands into the sand repeatedly to hold from mutilating himself.

"Ah! Now THAT! Was a lunch!" Brick said, leaning back in his seat, finally finishing his meal. All the others were near catatonic after the sheer amount of food they'd ingested, however him, Krieg, and Salvador had continued eating ravenously while the others lounged in their seats, attempting to digest without passing out. Angel and Zero were gone as they usually ate where the others would not see his face; a treasure that only Angel could behold.

**Character Perspective: Krieg**

My sinewy stilts began at the wooden gallows before me! All was silent. ALL WAS CALM! The bird of fire and the dark one had primed the fiesta with garnishing and the spleen warden and the arch had retired to their solicitation cauldron! My Meat Maiden bartered with the mass of furnishings within her and her frowning glow was trumpeting on in the distance. Her shallow chicken fingers stroked my pumpernickel jovially! AND I TYPED IT ALL!

...Then came the chives... The Wednesdays! THE PINGING IN MY GINGERSNAPS! And all went governing... ALL! WAS! NOBLE! The crimson in my pleasure folds, the feeling of the flavors, it was all chivalrous and gold! ...but it felt so typhus... so many wheeling sounds... AND THE JOY WAS GONE!

CAN YOU HEAR MEEE?! ALL! WAS! GOOOOONNNE!

Krieg awoke from his memory with burning pains all throughout his body, his veins felt like fire was pushing through them and his bones burned at the joints. His every movement was sluggish and his body felt like it was fighting even against the insane mind that manipulates it. He slowly rose to his feet with shaky footing and stood up straighter, rubbing his one visible eye to clear out the stinging within his brain. That's when the gravity of his memory hit him.

He'd lost it... In that single perfect moment with his love and all their friends, he'd finally snapped. He slaughtered them all, the entire town, torn apart buildings, mutilated goddamn fences for Pete's sake!

(I... No... We didn't... We couldn't! ...NO!) Krieg's inner voice screamed in horror. Krieg himself was filled with despair. His hands shook softly, his every muscle clenching tightly as he stared down at his palms. He silently reached up to his back and pulled out his Buzz Axe, holding it in quaking hands. He stared on at it, wide-eyed, in a trance. "The... The Meat Maiden... SHE WAS MINE!" Krieg bellowed, spinning the axe around and beginning to bash himself in the face with it. The metal, plastic and leather of his mask crumbled away, revealing his blood soaked face to the world as he continued hitting himself mercilessly. His left eye twitched, the right drenched in blood and obscuring his vision with black spots and blood-red images that trailed the present pictures slowly. In another swing, he recoiled, turning the axe the opposite direction, the blade now facing him. "WE'LL ALL GO TOGETHER!" he bellowed, preparing to swing and end his guilt when a voice stopped him.

_NO! _The voice shouted, pain and fear in its tone.

(An-Angel?) Krieg's sanity asked softly as Krieg barely contained his urge to mutilate and kill himself, digging with his fingers at the hilt of his weapon so roughly, his fingers bled.

_Yes... It's... It's me. I... I've been watching you... Checking to... To see if you regretted it... I didn't know... you... Forgot it... _she replied in a solemn tone, her sobbing evident, even in the psychic link. _But... Now that you remember... You... Want to die as punishment... Maya would be so happy..._ she continued, the last bit quiet, like she was afraid to say it.

(What... What do you mean? What happened to her?!) Krieg's inner voice shouted at the soft-spoken siren. Krieg's grip on his axe tightened, his tendons locking and his muscles burning with pain at the physical exertion.

_I... I don't know what happened to her... When you... Did that... She just... Disappeared..._ Angel replied.

(What happened to her during our lapse? Did we kill her?) Krieg's sane mind asked impatiently. Angel did not reply to this. (ANGEL! Did. We. Kill. HER?!) it bellowed.

_No! I... I don't know... No one else knows either... Everyone reconstructed after you leapt off the city, chasing some Rakk, but she was nowhere to be found. I don't even know if she was a victim... I'm... I'm sorry..._

"Then you will track her... You will be the blistering wind at my back... YOU. WILL. BE. THE. OBSERVER!" Krieg hollered, his muscles finally releasing, allowing him mobility again.

_I... I know, Krieg. I'm looking. She'll turn up eventually..._ Angel said slowly, her tone soft and even.

(Then let's go. We have to search for her. No matter how long it takes.) Krieg's sanity said, finally calming down. Angel hacked into their HUD and appeared before them, nodding softly. (And Angel?) It asked, Angel looking at them quizzically in response. (Please digistruct us a new mask, some Insta-Healths, and let us back into Sanctuary. We're going to help you and the others look for her, even if we have to die to do it.) the voice said evenly, Krieg nodding in agreement.

**End Chapter 2: Shellshock.**

_** I hope this chapter was good enough to compensate for the short length. I honestly don't know how long I'll have this story running, but it should be a few more chapters. Thanks to everyone reading out there. As always, read, review, and don't be afraid to PM me with any ideas, long comments, or thoughts you may have. Chao! **_


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